Denver-based nonprofit The Word, A Storyselling Sanctuary has launched a varied slate of programs since it was founded in 2016 by Viniyanka Prasad to promote equity in publishing and literature. Among those initiatives are editor-writer mentorships; a series of publishing workshops called Writing Paths; the [margins.] literary conference and book festival; the annual Duende-Word award for BIPOC booksellers; a statewide, NEA-sponsored book club; and #MarginsBookselling Month, a monthlong celebration of bookstores owned and managed by members of BIPOC, queer, disabled, and neurodiverse communities.

#MarginsBookselling Month, which launched in 2021, began as a response to the pandemic’s toll on bookselling. “We were coming off a wild 2020,” Prasad said, and “seeing so many community bookstores worried about survival” lent a sense of urgency to the mission of promoting and supporting indie booksellers. In its first two years, the program ran throughout the month of October; this year’s took place in August.

To accompany #MarginsBookselling Month, The Word created an interactive map and database of more than 140 indie booksellers throughout the continental U.S. that, according to The Word’s website, “are working to center diverse voices and stories.” Together, the stores comprise what The Word calls its “#MarginsBookselling network.” Prasad hopes the database, which is accessible year-round, can help people learn more about their local indies and discover bookstores in other states that they can support by shopping online.

Arvin Ram, owner of Townie Books in Crested Butte, Colo., said he has seen a sharp increase in out-of-state patrons during the monthlong celebration. “It has been astonishing to watch people fall in love with our store and become loyal customers from a thousand miles away during #MarginsBookselling Month,” he added.

Over the past three years, The Word has brought #MarginsBookselling Month to life through a variety of strategic sponsorships from organizations such as Bookshop.org, Libro.fm, and the American Booksellers Association. Last year, sponsor Penguin Random House distributed kits with buttons, bookmarks, and window displays to stores in the #MarginsBookselling network.

Another significant partnership is with Chronicle Books, which publishes the Margins Book-
store Journal, a branded notebook, to coincide with
#MarginsBookselling Month. The notebook’s interior features a detailed map, designed by illustrator Kah Yangni, broken up into six regions alongside information about various shops in the #MarginsBookselling network. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the notebook goes to #MarginsBookselling stores.

The creation of the journal was spearheaded by Bridget Watson Payne, then Chronicle’s editorial director. (Payne left the company in August.) “Bridget has also long been active in working to create equitable space within publishing,” Prasad said. “With just a couple of turns, the idea of this project made it to Bridget’s desk and we are able to collaborate.”

For this year’s #MarginsBookselling Month, The Word decided to offer what Prasad called more “bookseller-focused programming,” including author prepublication events, publisher book previews, and bookselling workshops “where we are opening up challenging questions and radically imagining the future of sustainable bookselling.” The response was so positive that The Word is now offering such programming year-round.

Prior to launching The Word, Prasad had spent years working as a public defender and was interested to see how her interests in justice, accountability, and social advocacy might apply outside the courtroom—namely in the world of books. “Books were always my space of possibility,” she said. She wondered, what might be possible if every step of the literary cycle—from writing to publishing to bookselling—was more inclusive?

“At the time, there wasn’t much in terms of a focus on the publishing ecosystem—interconnecting writer, publisher, bookseller, reader, and all of the folks who interact with a book along its journey—and really nothing in terms of a focus on intersectional support across BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, neurodiverse, and disabled communities across writing genres,” she said. “So The Word was formed to fill a gap.”

Today, Prasad is excited to bring booksellers, whom she called “part of the foundation of this industry,” closer to The Word with the success of #MarginsBookselling Month. “Indie bookstores are plugged into the communities they serve in ways that are unmatched by other industry retailers,” she said, alluding to bookselling giants like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. “Passionate booksellers and bookstores change lives for their customers and for the authors that fill their shelves.”